Image: Composer Paul Hindemith | Fondation Hindemith
On Saturday, November 19 at 3 PM, the Santa Barbara Music Club presents a free concert at the Faulkner Gallery in the Downtown Santa Barbara Public Library.
The concert features flautist Jane Hahn and pianist Christopher Davis performing Paul Hindemith’s Sonata for flute and piano and pianist Paolo Tatafiore performing Frédéric Chopin’s Impromptu, Op. 36 and Etude op. 10, No. 10 and Franz Liszt’s Sposalizio and Venezia e Napoli.
Program Details
(1895-1963)
- Heiter bewegt
- Sehr Langsam – Im Zeitmass
- Sehr lebhaft
- Marsch
Christopher Davis, piano
Supplement aux Années de pèlerinage, 2de année
- Gondoliera
- Canzone
- Tarantella e canzona napolitana
Notes on the Program
Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) was a German composer, theorist, teacher, viola player and conductor. He completed the Sonata for Flute and Piano in 1936. While he composed the work for his colleague, flutist Gustav Scheck, in October 1936, after a performance of the Violin Sonata in E was greeted with what was interpreted as political enthusiasm, the Nazi government banned all performances of Hindemith’s works. Eventually it was premiered by Georges Barrère, in Washington, D.C. on April 10, 1937, as part of Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge’s eighth festival of chamber music at the Library of Congress.
Composer Frédéric Chopin (1810 – 1849) began his career as a pianist, but soon gave up performance in favor of composition. Born near Warsaw, Poland and educated in Warsaw, both privately and in the High School of Music, he left for Vienna in November 1830, hoping to make a European concert tour. By the next year, while the concerts had not materialized as hoped, he found his way to Paris, where he soon established himself as a teacher, composer, and salon performer. He wrote almost exclusively for the piano. His music displays a gift for melody, an adventurous harmonic sense, and an intuitive and inventive understanding of formal design.
Franz Liszt (1811-1886), Hungarian composer, pianist and teacher, was one of the leaders of the Romantic movement in music. He was perhaps the greatest piano virtuoso of his time, performing not only his own music, but that of other composers, both in its original form and in transcription. He was deeply committed not only to championing new music of the time but to bringing the music of the past to new audiences. In his own compositions, he developed new methods which in some cases anticipated some twentieth-century ideas and procedures. Sposalizio and Venezia e Napoli are part of the Années de pèlerinage, three suites for piano written in response to his travels. He wrote in the introduction,
Having recently travelled to many new countries, through different settings and places consecrated by history and poetry; having felt that the phenomena of nature and their attendant sights did not pass before my eyes as pointless images but stirred deep emotions in my soul, and that between us a vague but immediate relationship had established itself, an undefined but real rapport, an inexplicable but undeniable communication, I have tried to portray in music a few of my strongest sensations and most lively impressions.
The Performers
Jane Hahn, singer and flutist, grew up in Santa Barbara, and has studied and performed as a singer and a flutist her whole life. Her modest singing career includes several comprimario roles with Opera Santa Barbara, and she has been the soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah in Santa Barbara, Ventura and Santa Maria. Jane has directed the women’s vocal ensemble, LUX, as well as choirs at St. Michaels and Trinity Episcopal churches. Jane studied flute at the college level at UCSB, and continues to practice and perform as a freelance musician today, lately branching out into the Jazz genre. Jane is a retired Software Engineer and Project Manager. She and her husband are very proud of their two married sons and their precious grand-daughter. Her hobbies include yoga, pottery, and house-building with her husband.
Christopher Davis, pianist, has been concerto soloist with several orchestras including the Northwest Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, and has studied with renowned teachers and scholars in Germany, Austria, and Portugal. He earned his BA Degree from UC San Diego, his MM Degree from the University of Arkansas, and his DMA Degree from UCSB. In addition to serving as the Music Academy of the West’s House Manager (2009-2016), Dr. Davis has been on the staff of the Ojai Music Festival and Westmont College (2014-2016), and has worked for Camerata Pacifica, collaborating independently with many of their musicians.
Paolo Tatafiore is a native of Naples, Italy, and comes from a family of composers, pianists, conductors, and painters. He has concertized to considerable acclaim in Germany and the United States, as well as throughout his native Italy. In the Italian Middle School and the Conservatory of Avellino he also became a passionate and devoted piano teacher; he has continued his pedagogical interests to this day, with some of his students having become internationally recognized performers. Among his recordings is a live performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 at the Herkulessaal der Residenz in Munich, Germany, with outstanding critical notices in major newspapers as well as the leading German magazine, Das Orchester. Mr. Tatafiore has recently moved back to the U.S. and lives in Los Angeles, with upcoming engagements including recitals in California and concerts with American orchestras. As a composer, he has recently published a group of piano pieces and a set of variations for viola and orchestra that will be premiered in Ohio in October of this year.
This project is funded in part by the Community Arts Grant Program using funds provided by the City of Santa Barbara in partnership with the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission.
